AE101 hatch drum brake to disc brake swap?

[TERRA Operative]

Nah, the master cylinder is identical for all intents and purposes. No need to grab it unless you want a spare to rebuild or something (it's only a couple of bolts and a few brake lines to remove).

[AE100_Corolla]

Cool, thanks. One less thing to worry about.

I went and picked up the rear discs today. He removed the right one in one piece but removed the left one in individual pieces (the first side he removed before deciding it was easier to drop the whole subframe). The arms that use the really long bolts were still attached to each of the knuckles and looked like he had tried to remove them as there were hammer marks on top of the threads, so the nuts wouldn't thread on. Didn't bother me though because I wanted to use my existing arms so I didn't have to worry about getting another wheel alignment, but good God, trying to remove those bastards wasn't fun........

The long bolts were seized in place and wouldn't budge whatsoever. We were whacking the hell out of it with a hammer and spraying all sorts of lubricants on it but nothing was working. After a couple of hours of whacking and a couple of broken ratchets later we finally ended up getting one of the bolts out. Fortunately the other side came out easier, but certainly wasn't a walk in the park. So now I finally just have the rear knuckles complete, without any existing arms fitted.

My next problem was reassembling the one side that he had removed in individual pieces. It was pretty straight forward since all of the bolts were included, but I couldn't figure out for the life of me how the caliper slid over the disc with the brake pads in place. I couldn't seem to get enough clearance between the brake pads for it to slide on without using excessive force. Not wanting to damage it, I decided to leave it alone before I stuffed something up (first time I've ever played around with brakes). Planning on heading to Midas with them tomorrow and just asking them to do me a favor and put the caliper on for me (and also check the other side to make sure it's installed correctly). Then I'd be ready to install the brakes sometime in the next couple of weeks.

I got the brake proportioning valve from the Levin. Was bloody awkward with the engine installed though, because the 4A-GE 20v's have much larger plenum then the 4A/7A-FE engines. Got there in the end though. Even grabbed the handbrake just in case (although it's a different colour than mine so I'll just have to switch over the cable if need be). I'll keep you posted as to how I get on. Here I was thinking that this job would be simple, but nothing on my car has been lately so I should have seen this coming

[TERRA Operative]

Yeah, those long bolts that attach the lateral arms to the hubs can be an absolute <expletive> to remove. Before you reassemble them, put some anti-seize or similar on the shaft of the bolt (not the threads) to make future disassembly easier.

Check out my build thread for photos of the rear brakes. If you want a picture of something specific, let me know.

[AE100_Corolla]

Yeah, I couldn't believe how stubborn they were to remove. Not sure why Toyota even needed to manufacture it with a 'window' in the middle to show the middle of the bolt, as all it seems to do is collect grit, which rusts behind the bolt and fuses it inside the knuckle. I'll buy some WD-40 and spray my arms once a day for about a week before even attempting to remove them. They won't be able to soak since the holes are in the side of the arms when fitted, but if I give it a spray it should be enough to at least make the job a little easier. Anti-seize compound on the shaft is a great idea. I'll be sure to pick some of that up too.

Thanks, will do. Was reading through my Haynes and Gregory's manual earlier and it seems that I just have to undo the bolt holding down the torque plate so that it swings open and allows me to fit the caliper without having to slide the disc between the already fitted brake pads. I tried to undo that 10mm bolt earlier but it was tight as hell so I just left it (couldn't be f*cked by this stage as we had just spent the last 3 or so hours removing the stuck bolts, lol). I'll still take it to Midas tomorrow for some free advice since they're located right next to Supercheap so I can pick up some WD-40 and anti-seize at the same time

[Dale]

Get some better tools and you'll save yourself many hours a ratchet just won't cut it for those suspension bolts. Breaker bar and a jack handle or long bit of pipe does it every time though.

[AE100_Corolla]

Get some better tools and you'll save yourself many hours a ratchet just won't cut it for those suspension bolts. Breaker bar and a jack handle or long bit of pipe does it every time though.

Oh, we tried all sorts. Getting the nuts off the bolts was the easy part, it was getting the bolts out of the knuckles which caused us trouble. We started whacking the hell out of the bolt first, then attempted to twist the bolt to break it free using the ratchet and breaker bar, but that just caused the ratchet to snap. In the end we just had to use a lot of brute force by using a sledge hammer, but even that took a while.